Transcript COMP2001 HNC Project

COMP2001 HNC Project
Project Characteristics
A project must have:
•clear objectives
•planning & control
•resources
•assurance of quality
Project Definition
A project is defined in terms of its:
- background
- objectives
- scope
- constraints
Project Schedule
•Determine project approach (buy or build)
•Estimate effort
•Prepare project plan
•Prepare project budget
•Document project progress
Project Schedule
Time ordered sequence of deliverables
Used for:
•organising work effort
•working towards project goals & obj.
•tracking the project
Tasks
•Smallest unit of work
•Each task only occurs once
•Suitably described
•Enough details to be measurable
Milestones
•Point in schedule to measure progress
•Contains a sequence of tasks
Project Management
Techniques
• Traditional project management
techniques widely used in many other
industries.
• These include:– Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
– Gantt chart.
– PERT chart (critical path or network
diagram).
Work Breakdown Structure
• Very useful for initial planning.
• Helps identify required resources.
• Structured list of all tasks and activities that
must be carried out to complete project.
• Usually, sequence is unimportant.
• Main purpose is checklist for completeness.
WBS example: “clean bedroom”
hoovering
– get hoover
– move furniture
– hoover floor
dusting
– get duster
– move ornaments
– do dusting
change bed, etc.
Gantt Chart
• The classic “bar-chart”.
• Often based on WBS, but includes time
dimension.
move furniture
get hoover
hoover floor
put furniture back
put hoover away
time
PERT Chart or Critical Path
Chart
• “Programme Evaluation and Review
Technique”.
• Designed to show interdependencies between
tasks:
– “get hoover” must be complete before “do
hoovering” starts (i.e. B depends on A);
– “move furniture” can happen before or after
“get hoover” (no dependency).
• Often derived directly from Gantt Chart.
Network Diagram
Event No.
Event
2
Event
Earliest 3
3 Latest Time
0
Time
Slack/Float
A
Get Hoover TM
(2)
1
0
0
2
0
3
B
Move Furniture
(3)
0
3
C
HooverTM Floor
(14)
Activity
3
17
0
Event
17
Resource Levelling
• First-cut chart is not always the most efficient.
• It may be possible to:
– reduce overall resources required,
– reduce total project time.
• “Levelling” means:
– use available float time on non-critical tasks,
– move spare resources from one task to another.
• A matter of judgement - no one best way.
Suggested Reading
Project Management for Information Systems
D Yeates & J Cadle